10/22/2026
Two Beverly homes to be featured on NBC 5’s “Open House Chicago” this Sunday!
NBC 5's “Open House Chicago” TV show takes viewers inside some of the Chicago area’s most remarkable high-end and historic homes. This week’s episode, “South Side’s Chicago Castles,” takes you back to the Jazz Age, when two businessmen, one in limestone and one in coal, built two of Beverly’s storybook homes.
The taping was a homecoming for host and producer Cortney Hall, who grew up on Hopkins Place in Beverly before her family moved to the western suburbs. She has wanted to feature the neighborhood since the show began three years ago. Our own Ridge Historical Society Historian Tim Blackburn serves as tour guide for the episode.
The Reed House (1928–29)
This 11,000-square-foot Tudor Revival mansion was built for George Reed Sr., an executive of the Peabody Coal Company. He and his wife Evalou lived here discreetly for three decades, though local lore says Hollywood star Constance Bennett once stayed with them for a time. Their son, George Reed Jr., raced Ferraris and competed at Le Mans three times with his team, “Reed’s Race Rats.”
Architect James Roy Allen was known for inventive brickwork, from the crenelated entrance tower to herringbone patterns within the half-timbering. After the Reeds, the Columban Fathers, a Catholic missionary order, lived here for several decades. They maintained the house but never remodeled it, part of the reason the marble foyer, Greek Revival sun room, and colorful Jazz Age bathrooms are largely as built.
The Frank Karge House (1925–26)
This Spanish Colonial just celebrated its 100th anniversary, which we posted about on Facebook back in July. It was built for Frank Karge, who ran an Indiana limestone business, and the house was a showcase for his product. The exterior is entirely cut Indiana limestone, with hand-carved reliefs and a colonnaded veranda.
Architects Michaelson & Rognstad, sons of working-class Norwegian-American families, created some of Chicago’s most exuberant Jazz Age buildings in a single decade together, including the Humboldt Park and Garfield Park field houses and the On Leong Merchants Association building. The Depression hit hard. Karge lost the house, and Rognstad suffered a devastating stroke in 1930.
On the tour, look for Italian bronze gates leading into the sunken living room, original tile from the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio, and armored corbels on the beamed ceiling. The backyard fountain features a limestone sculpture of Karge’s daughter at age seven.
Thank you to the homeowners of both houses for opening their doors and sharing these pieces of Beverly history with all of us.
Watch the episode on NBC 5 this Sunday (10/25) at 10 a.m. It can be streamed right now on YouTube by searching "Open House Chicago Beverly ". You can also Google "youtube open house chicago beverly".
